Diddy & Drake Make Sweet Music

The producer took the Degrassi grad under his wings for a recording session

And that’s a rap! As far as initiations go, hanging out with Diddy in Toronto the other night must have been right up there for Drake, Canada’s (and hip hop’s) Next Big Thing. There they were at Sotto Sotto. There, again, at Century Room. There, too, in the recording studio above Tattoo Rock Parlour, on Queen, where the Gatsbyish Diddy was said to be recording with the Toronto singer, and where the impressario was seen coming down the common stair well, posing like a pro for pics and jetting off just as fast in his SUV chariot.

In Toronto for a jam-packed sked, Diddy made like the Julius Caesar to Drake’s Mark An tony. (Or maybe more like the Maya Angelou to his Oprah Winfrey?) And while we’re on the subject, it behooves me to mention that Mr. Next Big Thing, a former Degrassi kid, certainly has no shortage of mentors. In the last four months alone — since Drake’s song The Best I Ever Had morphed into the song of the summer — not only has he been courted by Jay-Z, recruited by Lil Wayne and praise-the-lorded by Jamie Foxx but he’s notched up an incredible number of music collaborations with everyone from Mary J. Blige to Justin Timberlake to Rihanna.

Makes you kinda wonder: Is there ever a case of too many mentors in the kitchen? Hey, Drake, don’t you forget to listen to the little guy in your gut.

Shouts to National Post